TV Ratings: CMA Awards Tumble 40% to New All-Time Low
The 2020 edition of the CMA Awards drew the smallest audience in the show’s history.
A total of 6.8 million total viewers tuned in to this year’s country music celebration, hosted by Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker, which represents a substantial 40% fall from last year and is comfortably a new low. The previous smallest audience for the awards show was the 10.1 million viewers who tuned in two years ago. A 1.1 rating among adults 18-49 was also its lowest tally to date.
It is worth noting that awards shows have been down almost across the board over the last year. For instance, earlier in 2020 the Oscars fell 20%, the Emmys around 9%, the ACM Awards over 30% and more recently the Billboard Music Awards by 55%.
The CMA Awards faced stiff competition on Wednesday night, as Fox’s “The Masked Singer” topped the charts with a 1.5 rating and 5.8 million total viewers. However, that rating does tie a season low for the competition series so far. Fellow Ken Jeong competition show “I Can See Your Voice” followed with a 0.9 rating and 3.4 million viewers.
Over on NBC, the network’s trio of “Chicago” dramas all returned about even on last season. “Chicago Med” led the way with its season 6 premiere scoring a 1.1 rating and 7.6 million viewers. The season 9 premiere of “Chicago Fire” delivered a 1.0 rating and just over 7 million viewers, with the season 8 debut of “Chicago P.D.” rounding things off at a 0.9 rating and 6.3 million viewers.
“S.W.A.T.” struggled on its season 4 return on CBS, premiering to a series low 0.4 rating and 2.6 million viewers. Prior to that, “Amaxing Race” scored a 0.6 rating and 3.6 million viewers.
“Vencer El Desamor” led the night for Univision, scoring a 0.5 rating and 1.6 million viewers, followed “Imperio De Mentiras” with a 0.4 and 1.1 million pairs of eyeballs.
The latest edition of “Todo Por Mi Hija” delivered a 0.4 rating and 1.3 million viewers for Telemundo.
Over on the CW, new episodes of “Devils” and “Coroner” both scored a 0.1 rating, as the former drew 452,000 viewers and the latter 554,000.
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